1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a connector for electrically connecting cable conductors such as wire harnesses or the like to various kinds of electronic devices, apparatuses or the like. More particularly, the present invention relates to a connector of the foregoing type including detecting means for detecting whether or not electrical connection is correctly established therebetween.
2. Description of the Related Art
Many connectors as shown in FIG. 13 and FIG. 14 have been used for electronic devices, apparatuses or the like. Specifically, a connector 1 is substantially composed of a connector portion 2 on the upstream apparatus side (hereinafter referred to simply as an upstream connector portion 2) to be fixedly secured to the chassis of an electronic apparatus (not shown) and three connector portions 3 on the downstream apparatus side (hereinafter referred to simply as downstream connector portions 3) each adapted to be attached to the connector portions 2. Male terminals (not shown) are arranged in a housing 4 of the upstream connector portion 2 orienting in the A direction at a right angle relative to the attachment surface of the upstream connector portion 2. When the downstream connector portions 3 are electrically connected to the upstream connector portion 2, they are attached to upstream connector portion 2 in the B direction, causing the male terminals to be electrically connected to three cables 5 by way of the assembled structure composed of the upstream connector portion 2 and the downstream connector portions 3.
Since the connector 1 of the foregoing type is simple in structure and can be fabricated at an inexpensive cost, it is widely used for various kinds of electronic devices, apparatuses or the like.
With the conventional connector 1 constructed in the above-described manner, a wide space is required for connecting the connector 1 to a certain apparatus in order to assure that the downstream connector portions 3 are easily and smoothly connected to and disconnected from the upstream connector portion 2. In cases involving a high intensity electric current, e.g., a driving system for an electric car, a diameter of each cable 5 is unavoidably enlarged, resulting in a large magnitude of a pushing/pulling force being required at the time of cable connection and disconnection. In this case, an especially large space is required for connecting the connector 1 to a certain apparatus. In view of the fact that space available for practically installing devices or apparatuses not only in various systems but also in an electric car is restrictively limited, the space allocated merely for cable connection and disconnection prevents the density of installing devices or instruments from being satisfactorily improved.
In addition, when it is found that some of the downstream connector portions 3 are erroneously attached to the upstream connector portion 2, or the attachment of some of the connector portions 3 to the upstream connector portion 2 is carelessly forgotten, it is required that all the downstream connector portions 3 are inspected again. This inspecting operation is troublesome and takes a long time.
Incidentally, an electric connector including detecting means is disclosed in an official gazette of Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 1-274368. The disclosed electric connector is equipped with a connector member serving as detecting means independently of a connector member serving as controlling means. However, the disclosed electric connector suffers from the following problems: it is complicated in structure; there are a great number of components constituting the electric connector; and the number of man-hours required for fabricating the electric connector is also great.